![]() After clearing customs, we immediately embarked on a bus to the Normandy area, where we began at Pegasus Bridge - the place where, before the action on the beaches occurred, gliders landed in the middle of the night with troops that secured the bridge to prevent German reinforcements from arriving and ensure an exit route for Allied forces coming inland. In May, the team came together at Dulles International Airport for an all-night flight that would arrive in Paris early the next morning. Don Russell, deputy commandant for the Citizen-Leader Track, with the assistance of Gordon Rudd, whose experience includes being a West Point history professor, instructor for Marines at Quantico, and conducting classes on D-Day at the University of Virginia, we spent the spring semester in class learning about the various key leaders, their actions, and the intricate details of how this historic operation would take place. The particular venue was the efforts leading up to and the execution of the D-Day invasion. This year, my wife, Kathy, and I took part in the academic classes associated with one of our Global Scholar cohorts made up of 12 cadets. Our Global Scholars Program is one of the crown jewels in our efforts to produce graduates with a global perspective by using historic military and cultural venues with a focus on leadership at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels. Then the following Saturday, new cadets arrived followed a week later by the rest of the Corps. This continued into early August when, on the same day the last orientation students were checking out, our upper-class cadre began moving in to start their week of preparation training. The seamstresses and cadet staff take those measurements to create the uniforms that will be waiting in the new cadets’ rooms when they arrive for New Cadet Week.Īgain, because of the location and quality of our residence halls, that meant that every day we were welcoming nearly an entire building’s worth of students - they alternated between Pearson and New Cadet halls - for over a month! All incoming students, including our new cadets, come to campus for two days of briefings, meetings, and signing up for classes.įor our new cadets, the sessions include a briefing from me, meetings with ROTCs, and a visit to the Tailor Shop, where they are fitted for their uniforms. Starting right after the Fourth of July, the university and the Corps shift into summer orientation gear. These young cadets also used our obstacle course and rappelling tower, along with receiving information about the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets and what it has to offer. ![]() Among the visitors were a youth basketball camp followed by over 500 high-school Junior ROTC cadets here for a science and technology camp. The university plays host to many groups over the summer, and, because our two residence halls are the newest and best, we see a lot of traffic.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |